Regina Goldkuhl

Partial Transcript: So my name is Regina Goldkuhl and I'm the water quality administrator and AmeriCorps member serving with Mountain True. A lot of my responsibilities involve volunteer coordination and essentially running our water monitoring programs.

Partial Transcript: we have a handful of volunteer water quality monitoring programs; first being SMIE or Stream Monitoring Information Exchange. Essentially, that's our biomonitoring program where we collect aquatic insects known as macroinvertebrates from the stream bed and based on the numbers that we find and the types. Also species of the bugs that we find, it can indicate if the health of the—the stream is healthy or not. Another volunteer program we have is called VWIN or Volunteer Water Information Network and with VWIN, instead of taking the biological components that we do in the SMIE programs, we actually study the chemical components.

So volunteers essentially just scoop up a sample of water and it's sent to a lab and it spits out a bunch of these different parameter levels such as PH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and so forth and based on those numbers we can kind of track more of a kind of a snapshot in time what the chemicals look like in the water at that point. Another program that we've run is called Adopt-A-Stream program and this is really pertinent for church groups, Boy Scout groups, families, friends, whatever. Basically, a group of people that are interested in adopting a certain section of stream or river, and that entails kind of monitoring that section of river, a lot of trash cleanups, going out twice a year or so and picking up trash but also just kind of keeping an eye out to see any habitat changes, any development around that area or if you notice anything peculiar to notify us and like we can do some follow-up and whatnot. So those are the main volunteer programs that I run.

Partial Transcript: So in order to better understand our streams, we essentially need that baseline data set. So this kind of gives us a standard for what that stream looks like maybe in normal conditions and also what it looks like when there are any red flags. If there's a really high sediment level in the water, that would be a red flag, in which case, we would do a follow-up to kind of pinpoint exactly where it's coming from. But either way, this long-term data is really important to collect because it helps us kind of identify trends, first and foremost, and notice if anything, you know, is kind of skewed.

Partial Transcript: So in addition to the volunteer coordination, I also do a lot of educational outreach for younger children and I think it's really important for them to be aware of this sort of—kind of science, citizen science going on, but also just have a greater understanding of their ecosystems. And—so the kids in the Creek program in particular, that's a really tangible and hands-on experience for them to kind of understand why our rivers are important and they'll take that information home and digest it and maybe when they go to class the next day, they can put some of that into context in terms of ecosystem health but particularly aquatic health and our rivers and streams and why it's important to keep that healthy; and maybe even much further down the line they can incorporate that into their career search and maybe we'll have another generation of land stewards that have, you know, been exposed to this at a really young age. So I think that's really important for sure.

Partial Transcript: First and foremost, I think what inspires me about this position, in particular, is the fact that I get to go outside every day and contribute to a mission I feel very strongly about. I think getting outside, being exposed to different rivers in Western North Carolina; it doesn't take long to develop a really close connection to these places and if I were doing some other nine-to-five office job, you know, where I would only be allowed to come out here and my off hours, I think that would greatly diminish the opportunities I can or I have to connect with these places.

So my inspiration largely stems from the fact that I get to be outside all the time and doing something I love, but also kind of grow a skill set that is very necessary for my job field right now and I think will only grow in importance. So I'm kind of developing that own professional development but also being in a place I love and doing what I love.

Partial Transcript: So in terms of giving back to the community, I really—one of my greatest points I wanted to make through this position is kind of, assessing the needs of the community and figuring out what they want and what they need and trying to give back to them specifically what they're asking for. And a lot of times, a lot of these community members are just interested in knowing like, how healthy is our water, which seems like a very broad and general question but from the data that we collect and the annual reports that we can get out, honestly, like we can give them those answers; we can let them know that it's okay to swim in the river in your backyard or maybe not. It's okay to fish and it's okay to eat the fish that come out of this river. Just kind of generally, I guess, informing them about what their local environment and how it's doing and different aspects that kind of go into a healthy environment. Those things are really important in terms of getting back to the community because it's really reassuring to know that their environment is safe and it's okay to let their kids play outside and all that, and if it wasn't, you know, that's something that they would need to know as well. So really just informing the community, that would be our way of giving back.

I guess in addition to that, letting them participate in a lot of what data we collect and a lot of the programs we have are all volunteer-based and all volunteers are essentially local community members. So not only informing them about what we're doing and how their environment is impacted but also giving them the authority, I guess, to help us do that; to help collect that data.